History forever carved into a granite mountain

At the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, a testimony to perseverance and tribute to historic moments in U.S. history towers over the landscape in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota. While plants, animals and nature trails through forests populate the park, the centerpiece that draws nearly 3 million people a year is the four faces, each about 18 meters tall, that are carved into hard granite on the side of Mount Rushmore.

Artist Gutzon Borglum commenced the carving in 1927. It took about 400 workers (including his son, Lincoln) and 14 years to complete the faces of the four U.S. presidents he selected because they served during significant periods in the nation’s history.

From expansive Grand View Terrace, view those famous faces: George Washington, the first U.S. president, who led the Revolutionary War to gain independence from Great Britain; Thomas Jefferson, third president, and the author of the Declaration of Independence; Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president, who spurred economic development as the country entered the 20th century; and Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, who worked to preserve the union during the Civil War and led efforts to abolish slavery.

Park visitors will want to stop in the Sculptor's Studio and see Borglum’s 1/12th scale model of the mountain. Inside the Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center – named after Borglum’s son, who oversaw the project after his father died and later became the park’s first superintendent – view a movie and museum exhibits about the work.

Stay into the evening in the summer months to hear a ranger talk about the site’s significance and join about 2,500 others at a lighting ceremony in the park’s amphitheater.